boxes

Things to put on your head

Remember when you were in fourth grade and wanted to stop other kids from copying your stuff? You'd erect a fortress of open books around your paper, blocking it from prying eyes and creating a little courtyard in the middle for your work.

That's what the "Office Collar" essentially wants to do for your head, except in reverse: It's basically a horse blinder for humans, aimed at keeping you from getting distracted by your surroundings. Textually.org notes that this self-imposed isolation device, the brainchild of designer Simone Brewster, could also be used to help … Read more

Box.net updates widget for group file sharing

Box.net, the online storage service, has updated their embeddable widget with a new group sharing feature for members with premium and professional accounts. Users can password protect a shared folder, which can then be accessed privately by others with the code. Storage owners can opt-in to allow user uploading, which lets anyone with access add files. The company is gearing it at businesses, whereas its previous widget incarnation was aimed at users with social networking profiles.

For group users to keep track of updates to shared folders, each share gets its own RSS feed. Once subscribed, the name and … Read more

Office 2.0: Open for Business

This group of presenters at Under the Radar is focused on tools that let regular people (read: not coders) create Web sites and tools to make things easy for site visitors and customers.

My Payment Network provides small-businesses and education payment systems aimed at cutting administrative costs and the hassle of paper checks. For schools, it's a chance to add an online payment system for things like sports enrollment fees, and equipment costs. For small businesses, it's another way to handle payment processing. My Payment Network is comparable to PayPal, but offers customizable controls for those in charge … Read more

Web update roundup: Box.net, MySpace, PreFound, Netvibes

Box.net gets new design. Box.net has gotten a face-lift that shows more files and menu choices in the same amount of space. They've also completely gotten rid of the sidebar (which once housed navigation options), and added some neat previews for any photos that have been stored. There's also the option to send any file that's on there to one of your Box.net widgets without having to leave the page. Previous Box.net coverage here.

MySpace partners with Bodog. Online sports gambling, TV, and music service Bodog has partnered with MySpace to tweak the … Read more

Apple TV now shipping

At long last, it looks like Apple TV is available for purchase. The Apple Web site on Tuesday morning listed the set-top box as available for shipment in three to five business days.

Calls to New York- and San Francisco-area Apple stores confirmed that the box, which is meant to deliver content between a TV and a PC, is so far only available online. A San Francisco Apple store employee said they expect to have Apple TV "any day now."

First announced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in September under the name iTV, CEO Steve Jobs formally unveiled the device … Read more

Steekr: Another virtual drive service

Steekr is a new online storage service with automated backup software for both Windows and Mac. Users get a gigabyte to store whatever they want. Steekr is a sibling product to SteekUp, parent company Agematis' business-centric backup service that gives customers 100GB with a paid subscription. The new service is designed for casual users who want to automate file backups or move large files between locations without optical media.

The software installation is needed only for people who want to automate file backups. If you want to stick to the Web, you can still back up anything you want with … Read more

A car cam for Paris Hilton?

It's official: Crave has a link to Paris Hilton. A couple of weeks ago we panned the idea of this car-board black box device for any number of reasons. But today we read on GeekSugar that Kathy and Rick Hilton expressed interest in the Gadget Universe product for their ubiquitous daughter to keep tabs on paparazzi and other media hounds. We're not sure what to make of this latest development, but we do agree with GeekSugar's trenchant observation: "Personally I wonder if Paris really needs any more cameras around her than she already has."

Mosoto turns Facebook into a live chat service

Mosoto is a Web-based app for Facebook, giving you a virtual desktop with chat, music, and file sharing built right in. Mosoto allows you to chat with other Facebook friends and swap photos, music, and videos using a shared storage folder from Box.net. As a service, Mosoto is meant to replace desktop applications for chatting and music.

The music player's user interface takes a design cue from iTunes. Double-clicking a song starts playing it instantly, almost like it's running off your hard drive--a good use of streaming. You also can quickly make playlists with simple drag-and-drop functions. … Read more

The forgotten online backup utility: Titanize

I wanted to revisit some of the products that didn't work for me yesterday, since my personal demo demon seems to have moved on.

I'll start with Titanize, the unknown online backup product. Titanize competes with services like Mozy and Carbonite. But it offers features that the others don't, and it is worth serious consideration if you're looking for an over-the-Net backup service.

For basic backups, it's much like Mozy and Carbonite. It's easy to set up, and it runs in the background, sending your new and changed files to its secure servers. But … Read more

We'd rather have a crash helmet

The idea of a car-board black box doesn't bother us, despite the obvious issues of data privacy and commentary on modern society. We are, however, offended by another aspect: aesthetics.

Just take a look at the most recent version from Gadget Universe. Would you really want to mount one of these things on your dash or in the rear window of your car? It's almost as bad as a dog with a bobbing head.

Sure, it's possible that your recorded evidence could come in handy after an accident. But what if you were at fault because your … Read more